Continental kit and Supercharger

Who chops up hood and front chassis on a nice Cadillac convertible from 1960 and shoehorns in a 8,7 litres engine with a supercharger on top? A crazy Swede. Meet Borje Carlsson with one of Sweden’s cheekiest car constructions and Worldkustom  was there, from the beginning. by Lars Krantz 

The man
In 1969 a fifteen year old Borje steps out from that small school in a village up north Sweden called Ramsele. In his pocket he has his grades, all zeroes and strokes. The teacher had sweeten it with an “A” in conduct “not because you deserve it but just so you’ll have any chance in life” he had said.

Today: Chief Executive Officer

The day after Borje started as an errand boy in a hardware store. Today he owns the company and has added a few more.
-You can call me Chief Executive Officer, he laughs out loud showing the logo of the concern on his back, Bugs Bunny.
That’s the way he is. Easy, straight forward, works 24-7 always with a smile for the next customer in line.

The car.
The Cadillac was found on text-TV in the year of 2000. Then with original 390 V8. Borje was knocked by the long, slick lines. The car was in Denmark and they we’re supposed to meet on the “quay in Gothenburg”. Piece of cake Borje thought used to that one-punt bay in Ramsele.
-Hell, they had a hundred quays!

When Carlsson finally found the car he just screamed and handed over the dollars. He didn’t even bother to test drive it. Since then the car has been a true source of joy.

The bell
In the north of Sweden the car has been known as “the bell”. When Borje was 18 he took his last money and bought that bell. It’s of a locomotive and was 35 dollars. That bell has stayed with Borje thru life. Where ever that sound is heard everybody know, Borje’s here.

The cruise.
Go cruising with Borje is not an ordinary thing. It starts already at 10 a.m. A ring in the bell and the bar in the trunk opens. A tank for washer fluid with pump is attached in the trunk delivering “washer fluid” to all passengers livers to digest. All day they cruise around eating, drinking and having a good time. Everyone who wants can jump in.

-A Cadillac always has room, Borje says.
The cruising street is mangled up and down until that white Cadillac is the only one left. A cruise with Borje never ends before 6 a.m. morning after.

 

The Santa.
You guys who wants to read about the supercharger – it’s coming up but first the Santa. In the town of  Solleftea there’s a man who has dedicated his life to help children with needs. Borje drove by, rang  in the bell and Santa came out. Shortly after he sat in the car with a priest who also was invited. The Santa and the priest had good food but stayed away from the liver rinse. Suddenly Borje took a bet with Santa for 150 dollar.

Borjes bet was so predictably insane that Santa had to call. Santa wan of course. Borje immediately ordered the other entrepreneurs in the car to follow. Santa wan every time and in the morning it was some happy Santa who returned to his house with several hundreds of pounds for his children’s aid.

The idea.
Borje was treating everybody with washer fluid one late night when a hot-rodder came by. Gunnar Jonsson. A rodder and a licensed airplane mechanic for Boeing 737, FokkerF-28 and all small aircrafts up to 4000 pounds. Borje who already had mounted continental kit, bell, stereo that you could almost weld with, air ride, bar and smoke machine on his car dreamed about a super charger.

Gunnar knew all about engines and blowers. That night planes were made.
-I had my doubts, Gunnar admitted, since this Borje was new to him, but when he a week later come by and dropped an heavy envelope with cash there was no questions.

The project.
Gunnar had had free hands and a no limit account. He soon realized that the 390 was a no-no but on the other hand the Cadillac engine with 502 whispering c.i. looked interesting. The worlds largest series produced car engine in modern time. Weight less than a Chevy small block, has higher grade of nickel in the cast iron and a tremendous oil gallery.

With a stroked crankshaft you could reach 530 c.i or 8,7 litres. On top of that nothing would suit better than a BDS 8;71 blower with two Holley 600.

The buy.
Gunnar ordered a complete engine from USA but the Yanks didn’t want to deliver such an engine for a street 1960 Cadillac.
-Have you any idea of what you’re doing?? they said.
Well, Gunnar had and when he started discussing camshaft overlap, rods and piston designs they backed out on him.

Instead Gunnar bought all parts he wanted thru a friend in USA and assembled the engine himself. When the stroked crankshaft arrived it was to narrow grinded for the rods to fit in. Gunnar had to work it by hand making a tool out of an old rod with mounted cutting tool using round file, duck tape and some slices of emery cloth. Took two days!

The struggle.
Nothing fitted. Everything had to be modified in one way or another. Gunnar made reinforced valve guides in airplane plastic. Oil channels has been drilled to oversize.

The oil pan has been redone and welded. The oil sump moved. Front chassis beam cut, cylinder shaped engine brackets made, headers made, inner fender modified, the generator has new gear ratio, power steering connections have been moved, new cooler was needed and electric fans have been added.  Even the windshield wiper engine had to be moved.

-In fact, this is not possible, Gunnar laughs.
-Imagine I had to move the damn bell also.

The demands..
Borje, that names himself car pathologist, though he in his younger days could bring every car corps to live an sold on an newspaper advert, had announced his cruising demands in plain terms.

-The engine must manage to idle for hours and hours. I want it painted in Pripps beer blue colour and I want the valves to be big as pizza plates.
Well, he got what e wanted and the heads are veritable art from Bulldog Performance who stalled the shipping two weeks to have them on an exhibition in USA before they were exported.

The test.
The same day as a big cruise-night in May took place the car was done.  By that time Gunnar also was done as he hadn’t slept in a week though he has his bed in the garage.

Then the tweaked TH400 showed to have only two gears. They drove 250 miles on second gear that night at witch Borje mumbled that the gas tank must be by the size of his bladder.

As soon as anybody spotted a gas station they hit the brakes. Due to the stock rear axle airplane mechanic had forbidden all sudden movements on the accelerator even if he also had limited the action to only activate the first step on the carburators. After hours with that wining blower above the hood Borje couldn’t contain himself but ordered half speed ahead.

From the caddy came a giant snore, the blower thundered and the speedometer needle took an absolutely incredible  Bob Beeman jump out of it’s  Sleeping Beauty slumber.

“Ring” it said but not in the bell but in the rear axle. The gang limped home that early morning with a clattering pinjong and silly smiles on their faces

The show.
The roomer were out. Everybody talked. On the Internet pictures were spread. When the car showed up one week later with three gears, repaired rear axle and a, if possible, even more done Gunnar Jonsson people crowded were ever it stopped and Plåtconny (Ironconny) chanted.

-This is the most outstanding rape I’ve ever seen on a Cadillac.
Borje smiled as Bugs Bunny and rhymed:
-Where ever I go in the world, the tires smoke and the bell is heard.

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Facts

Engine: Cadillac original  472/500 1969

Crankshaft:  Cadillac 500 stroked by excenter grinding

Rods: Eagle H-beam

Pistons: Ross reversed dome 7,0:1

Camshaft : Blowercam from Compcam.

Roll rockers Scorpion aluminium

Lifters: original Cadillac hydraul.

Heads: Bulldog Performance

Super charger: BDF 8:71

Carburator: 2 Holley 600 model 4150

Home made headers fenderwell type

Ignition: MSD fördelare med boost retard som justeras från förarplats.

Sparkplugs: NGK bkur6et-10 with 1mm gap originally made for supercharged  newer Mercedes.

Transmission: th400 with coarse spragg and  tweaked for high pressure on third gear

Propeller axel extended with  race joke

Rear axel: stock

Note: Gunnar stopped as airplane mechanic shortly after the Cadillac was finished

He rather builds cars these days.